Tuesday, 17 July 2012

DIY secondary screen for the Google Nexus

If you're engrossed in various games or other activities on your Google Nexus phone, but still need to keep an eye on the time or incoming SMSs from that special someone, Philip Lindsay's project fits the bill. Using an Arduino, USB host shield, character LCD module and some clever code he details how to use the LCD module as a secondary display for the Nexus.

Ordinarily this type of project would seem quite out of reach, however you can download the details, code and Android app from Philip's site here. And we're on twitter, so follow us for news and product updates as well.

To get started with your own Android and Arduino projects, consider our Freetronics USBDroid. Apart from having all the functionality of our Freetronics Eleven board, it includes a USB-host mode controller and a microSD memory card slot all merged together into a single, integrated board that is 100% Arduino compatible:

This is the ideal platform for developing peripherals or projects based around Android devices with ADK (Android Developer Kit) functionality, but without requiring a USB host controller shield stacked onto an Arduino.